This has now been confirmed by the BBC reporting that Gen. Martin Dempsey confirms the request. So 275 boots on the ground are not boots on the ground and now the US will reluctantly but pin-pointedly accurately bomb the bad guys (and some good guys) in Iraq... how has that ended in the past?

Iraq has formally called on the United States to launch air strikes against jihadist militants who have seized several key cities.

"We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," confirmed top US military commander Gen Martin Dempsey.

The announcement came after insurgents launched an attack on Iraq's biggest oil refinery north of Baghdad.

As AP reported yesterday,

President Barack Obama has shifted his focus away from airstrikes in Iraq as an imminent option for slowing a fast-moving Islamic insurgency, in part because there are few clear targets that U.S. could hit, officials said.

Officials said Obama has made no final decisions and could ultimately approve limited strikes if stronger targets emerge. The CIA and other spy agencies are scrambling to close intelligence gaps in the region and track the movements of key figures in the militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which seized Mosul, Tikrit and other towns in Iraq as the country's military melted away.

"It's time for the Iraqis to resolve it themselves," said Reid

As WaPo adds, the Pentagon's top leaders testified Wednesday that a U.S. campaign of airstrikes in Iraq would be fraught with complications, both political and military, and suggested that a rush to take such action could backfire.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iraqi government has requested that Washington provide "air power" as it tries to take back territory seized in recent weeks by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other insurgents.

Dempsey told a panel from the Senate Appropriations Committee that the Obama administration was still weighing how to respond. But he emphasized that airstrikes would be extremely complicated. "It's not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then immediately striking," he said.

...

"There is very little that — that could have been done to overcome the degree to which the government of Iraq had failed its people. That's what has caused this problem," Dempsey said. "This has not broken down entirely on sectarian lines, but it could."

Why would the USA do a strike against the very people its supporting. I saw a pic on daily mail and all those ISIS guys guarding the main dude were equipped with M16s, pretty obvious who is feeding the Sunni war machine..

The english-friendly name (like Cobra or Hydra), ballcaps, sunglasses, t-shirts, rifles held at low ready, obviously freshly dyed hair and beards, new F-350 pickup trucks, and similar were also good tells.

"Why would the USA do a strike against the very people its supporting. I saw a pic on daily mail and all those ISIS guys guarding the main dude were equipped with M16s, pretty obvious who is feeding the Sunni war machine."

Besides the huge caches of arms (including M16s) ISIS has captured from fleeing ARVN, er, I mean Iraqi Army troops and their bases? Not saying the US isn't arming them in Syria, but there are plenty of captured M16s in Iraq.

Well, general dempsey, the Syrian Air Force has bombed some convoys with vietnam era mig 21s ( and also su 25s and mig 29s ) so what is your excuse? These guys will trip over themselves to run to a microphone to brag about the abilities of the US military, but then pretend that they can't see a fucking convoy of trucks with 23mm machine guns driving through a DESERT?

Your excuse is youu guys don't want Maliki there anymore. Hitlery gave the kiss of death yesterday - Maliki must go.

If the US wanted ISIS gone those convoys would have been twisted hulks already. They didn't get ISIS going in Syria only to kill them in Iraq. BArring political outrage and pressure, they don't seem keen on doing anything but rooting for ISIS quietly.

Barry & Gen Dipshit would look even more like little dogs (or human fire plugs) if Russia (which has plenty of aircraft and laser guided bombs ready to go) and Iran (which has boots on ground in Iraq now and can identify targets) decided to team up in an effort to boost Russian arms exports and send a not-so-subtle message to the Ukeys...

(and since the Iranians could simply rebrand "friendly fire" accidents as "martyr manufacturing" there really is no down side)

"These guys will trip over themselves to run to a microphone to brag about the abilities of the US military, but then pretend that they can't see a fucking convoy of trucks with 23mm machine guns driving through a DESERT?"

Oh, you mean the ones ISIS captured from the Iraqi Army which look just like the equipment the Iraqi Army will be using (once they stop running) against ISIS?

At some point in time this nonsense will come to these shores. Until that happens the American people will sit passively by as they gleefully dispatch their children off to drop bombs and pull triggers. They don't care because for them it isn't personal, it's just some video game played out on their wizbang new plasma television. Most people have bought into the notion that America is "exceptional" and must be the purveyor of democracy throughout the world while being totally oblivious to the fact that it has failed at home. While I wasn't a huge fan of his policies John Kennedy hit the nail squarely on the head when he said - “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”

We really have NO clue how to deal with these folks, we just refuse to understand that they aren't all just pupal-Americans who only need some gentle encouragement to be born. And when we leave, and they revert to all their old ways, we wonder what's wrong with them...why are they rejecting our obviously superior ways?

We've been watching too many Hollywood movies here...as the woman in the Esurance commercials says, "That's not how it works...that's not how any of this works!"

It's like when people say "Why couldn't the cop have just shot the gun out of his hand?" It looks so easy on TV, but anyone with actual shooting experience would tell you it is NOT.
Targeted airstrikes from thousands of feet up are just as difficult. Not just the implementation, but the targeting to begin with. You CAN hit that large group of people if you want, but you have no way of being sure it isn't a wedding party instead of a jihadi gathering. You are depending on intelligence to tell you, and what is the track record there?
I think that one of the reasons we here in America ARE so gung-ho over war is Hollywood...they only show us the heroic, over-the-top action-hero stuff. We come to think these things ARE possible, and that we can successfully do them. And others around the world, who HAVE had to step over corpses in their streets, and have had their own cities bombed into rubble, look at us like we were completely bonkers.